Supreme Court, like Obama, leaves marriage to states

President Barack Obama said a year ago that same-sex marriage is an issue best left for states to decide – and on Wednesday the Supreme Court agreed.

The court issued specific rulings overturning the Defense of Marriage Act and sending back California’s Proposition 8 to state judges — avoiding a broader ruling on the issue in a way that paralleled Obama’s position that he didn’t want to impose his views on the issue on the nation.

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That’s adding more impetus to the strategy of same-sex marriage advocates to continue their fight for new equality legislation and against state constitutional laws prohibiting marriage, as they pledged to do on the Supreme Court steps on Wednesday.

Obama explained his position after telling ABC’s Robin Roberts last May that his position had “evolved” to supporting gay marriage. The court Wednesday, in a 5-4 majority, didn’t take an explicit position on marriage but instead suggested a constitutional prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

“What you’re seeing is, I think, states working through this issue — in fits and starts, all across the country,” Obama said then. “Different communities are arriving at different conclusions, at different times. And I think that’s a healthy process and a healthy debate. And I continue to believe that this is an issue that is going to be worked out at the local level, because historically, this has not been a federal issue, what’s recognized as a marriage.”

Gay couples can marry in 13 states, including California, as well as Washington, D.C.

“DOMA’s principal effect is to identify a subset of state-sanctioned marriages and make them unequal,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court’s majority. “DOMA contrives to deprive some couples married under the laws of their State, but not other couples, of both rights and responsibilities.”

Obama’s remarks last year were seen largely in the light of Vice President Joe Biden beating him to the punch during his re-election campaign. Days earlier, Biden said on “Meet the Press” that he favored same-sex marriages, while Obama had not yet committed to them.

Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, set a goal of making same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states within five years. Griffin on Wednesday pressed to Obama, who called to congratulate him on the court decision, that the fight for gay marriage continues in the states.

“While we celebrate today, we know we’ve got to roll up our sleeves and get to work for those in the 37 states that didn’t get marriage equality today,” Griffin told Obama in a conversation carried on live television.

Even House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said future marriage decisions will be made by the states, not in Congress.

“A robust national debate over marriage will continue in the public square, and it is my hope that states will define marriage as the union between one man and one woman,” Boehner said.